Thousands of rural innovations exist in rural India, and if nurtured and enabled as micro-enterprises, they can contribute in a significant way to the reduction of poverty. How can entrepreneurs worldwide recognize these innovations and market them so that they best serve communities in need? Read Anna Saheb’s story, and how expert advice and guidance turned his product idea into a reality.

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Anna Saheb – The Innovator
The Chandraprabhu Raingun is an innovation of Shri Anna Saheb Udgave, a 70-year old sugarcane farmer in Chandraprabhu, India.

Anna Saheb was originally a betel vine farmer. He faced a severe water problem, to which he responded in typically innovative fashion, by successfully developing his own drip irrigation system.

Later, poor prices for betel leaf forced him to switch over to farming tobacco, which got him thinking about a sprinkler irrigation system. His ideas about using a sprinkler system were reinforced when this resourceful farmer switched crops again, this time to sugarcane. By studying commonly available sprinkler systems, he developed his own design to suit the irrigation requirements of sugarcane.

While it was developed with sugarcane in mind, the Raingun can also be used
with excellent results to a number of other crops such as groundnut, tapioca, onion,
and potato.

The Feattures of Saheb’s Chandraprabhu Raingun
Saheb’s Raingun has to be appreciated in light of current irrigation practices. An overwhelming majority of Saheb’s fellow farmers still practice unplanned flood irrigation. Seepage and evaporation makes this an inefficient irrigation method.

What is more, as a result of government subsidized power supplies to farmers, the common practice is to keep the pumpsets running for hours on end. This leads to an even greater waste of precious water resources, precipitating the national water crisis, which is so acute in India that the very sustainability of agriculture is being threatened, even as demand for water increases. Amending irrigation practices is the only way out, if agriculture is to be sustained profitably.

Saheb’s Chandraprabhu Raingun is a powerful mega sprinkler that throws a large amount of water (up to 500 litres per minute) a radius of 90 feet, like artificial rain.

It offers a number of benefits to the farmer:

-Reduces water consumption by 50 per cent as compared to flood irrigation, which in turn results on
-Irrigation time down 50 per cent
-Power consumption down, and
-Labor requirements down as raingun irrigation is less labor intensive than flood irrigation
-Increases crop yield by 10 per cent
-Fertilizers can also be applied with the raingun irrigation system, reducing consumption of fertilizers
-Washes away pests like aphids, white flies etc.
-Supports the highly recommended practice of trash mulching in sugarcane, which is a process of converting trash into nutrients for the crop.


Two Early Adopters of the Raingun in Bellad Baigewadi, Chikodi, Belgaum

Mr. Vardhaman, Cane Farmer
Mr. Vardhaman read about raingun technology in the new products section of a magazine, but he found the cost of the system too high. He kept searching for other rainguns, leading him to the Chandraprabhu Raingun, and a visit to Anna Saheb’s farm, to see for himself the system design and performance.

He installed the system with Anna Saheb’s assistance and initially used the Chandraprabhu Raingun only for its water saving benefits. This strategy alone returned 80 per cent of his investment in one year. It was only with time that he realized its other benefits - now, he says even people with lots of water are considering the Chandrapbhu Raingun, because it applies only the required amount of water, and thus prevents damage to soil resulting from application of excessive water.

Ajit Khemlapure, Cane Farmer
Mr. Khemlapure has 18 acres of land, only fourteen acres of which could be cultivated with flood irrigation, but with the raingun system, all 18 acres could be irrigated. Further, for this acreage he now needs only one laborer, whereas earlier he would have needed two. What is more, after three years of use, he feels that the Raingun keeps the soil in good condition. His yield has increased from 40 to 50 tons per acre. The one problem he still experiences is strong winds affecting spray. However, the Chandraprabhu Raingun has an edge - a different raingun in the same field has proved completely unsuitable for irrigation.

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What would you do? How do you translate a small-scale solution into a marketable product? The following is how RIN, a non-profit organization in India that encourages and supports rural innovation-based enterprises, handled the Raingun challenge.

Rural Innovations Network (RIN) saw that the Chandraprabhu Raingun had a lot of potential. It could not only play a key role in the irrigation sector because of the water savings it offered, but also it could make a crucial difference to the cane economy.

We pursued several methods in order to commercialize the Raingun, finally deciding that to best serve Saheb and the innovation in terms of both monetary and social returns, we needed to locate an entrepreneur to produce and market the Raingun.

We found a suitable entrepreneur for this endeavor in Servals Automation Ltd. An agreement was formed where Saheb would supply the technology, and Servals would manufacture and market the product.

But that was not all. With the technology transfer complete, we still needed investment for the Raingun, thus we initiated discussions with Aavishkaar India Micro-Venture Capital Fund (AIMVCF). After intense examination of the market potential of the Raingun, AIMVCF invested in the product.

While business discussions were still taking place, RIN test-marketed the Raingun in Tamilnadu. We have received encouraging signals from the market about the potential benefits for farmers in India. A statewide launch is planned in line with the concept of "technology outwards", which innovators innovate out of
a local need, and in many cases the same need exists in other rural villages.

Not surprisingly, since development, the Chandraprabhu Raingun has received a lot of recognition. In 2002, the Chandraprabhu Raingun was selected for the 3rd prize by the National Innovation Foundation of the Government of India.

The Raingun has also made an impact in the marketplace, with a total of 700 rainguns sold over the last five to six years.




Reprinted with permission from Rural Innovations Network.

To read another success story, see Time to Grow: Taking a Start-Up to the Next Level .